Hayden Brown Sells 73,241 Shares of Upwork (NASDAQ:UPWK) Stock

Upwork Inc. (NASDAQ:UPWK) CEO Hayden Brown sold 73,241 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $8.43, for a total transaction of $617,421.63. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 771,076 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,500,170.68. This represents a 8.67% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards.

Hayden Brown also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Thursday, June 18th, Hayden Brown sold 23,468 shares of Upwork stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $8.15, for a total transaction of $191,264.20.

Upwork Stock Down 0.6%

UPWK stock opened at $8.61 on Friday. Upwork Inc. has a 12-month low of $7.44 and a 12-month high of $22.84. The company has a market cap of $1.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.18 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a 50 day moving average of $8.83 and a two-hundred day moving average of $10.50.

Upwork (NASDAQ:UPWK) last issued its earnings results on Monday, August 10th. The company reported $0.41 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.34 by $0.07. Upwork had a net margin of 12.94% and a return on equity of 16.70%. The company had revenue of $191.66 million during the quarter. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.35 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. Upwork has set its FY 2026 guidance at 1.380-1.430 EPS and its Q3 2026 guidance at 0.310-0.330 EPS.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Upwork

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in UPWK. State of Wyoming bought a new stake in shares of Upwork in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $1,965,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Upwork by 2.2% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,989,217 shares of the company’s stock valued at $297,086,000 after purchasing an additional 322,455 shares during the period. New York State Teachers Retirement System increased its position in shares of Upwork by 547.9% during the fourth quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System now owns 73,287 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,453,000 after purchasing an additional 61,976 shares during the period. Summit Partners Public Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Upwork in the fourth quarter valued at $40,136,000. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc lifted its position in Upwork by 126.8% in the fourth quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 332,884 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,598,000 after purchasing an additional 186,081 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 77.71% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

UPWK has been the subject of several research reports. UBS Group reduced their price target on Upwork from $10.00 to $9.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, August 14th. Royal Bank Of Canada decreased their target price on shares of Upwork from $9.00 to $8.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, August 11th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Upwork from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, May 9th. Citigroup cut their price target on shares of Upwork from $17.00 to $10.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 21st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group set a $11.50 price objective on shares of Upwork in a report on Tuesday, August 11th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $13.05.

About Upwork

Upwork Inc operates a leading online talent marketplace that connects businesses with independent professionals worldwide. Through its digital platform, the company enables clients across industries—including technology, marketing, creative services and customer support—to source, hire and manage freelance talent on demand. Key features of the Upwork platform include streamlined job posting, proposal evaluation, time-tracking tools, invoicing and secure payment processing, all designed to simplify collaboration between clients and remote workers.

The company traces its roots to the merger of two pioneering freelance marketplaces, Elance (founded in 1998) and oDesk (founded in 2003), which combined in 2015 to form a unified entity.